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The Shriram family that runs DCM is in a bit of a spot: it has to
find Rs 10 crore to buy out Swraj Paul's 13 per cent holding in the
company, but is unable to get the money together - unlike Escorts, which has rushed through with the deal.

Matters have become more
complicated because the male members of the family and their descendants simultaneously want to buy out Lala Shriram's daughters and their
descendants, who in any case have had no stake in the management of the
company, and who would therefore prefer to invest their money elsewhere.

But this deal too is stalled, because the money required for the deal has
yet to be found. Meanwhile, DCM itself is not doing very well - a
money-spinning unit in Delhi was closed following a gas leak and the
company is unlikely to declare a dividend this year.

New Proposal

Reliance Industries, never a company to sit quiet, has now proposed
to the Government that it should be allowed to expand its licensed
capacity for linear alkyl benzene (LAB) - a raw material for
manufacturing detergents - from 50,000 tomes to 80,000 tomes.

The
initial licence has not yet been implemented, and the company would like to go in for a bigger operation from the start, with an investment of
Rs 32.4 crore and an expected turnover of Rs 57 crore. Rivals view the
companies proposal in the context of efforts by other companies to get
licences from the Government for setting up their own LAB plants.

The outcome of this battle should indicate whether the wind continues to
blow unfavourably for Reliance in New Delhi's corridors of power, or
whether it has changed direction.

Panels Aplenty

Believe it or not, the country's bemused exporters are faced with not one but three courts of final appeal. With a number of agencies
functioning in the export arena, exporters had long been demanding an
apex body to which they could appeal on day-to-day export matters.

The Government finally obliged them early this year. The snag: both the
Industry and the Commerce Ministry came up with committees headed by
their respective secretaries, leaving businessmen thoroughly confused as to which one would have the last word. The official answer to their
predicament?

Yet another committee, headed by the cabinet
secretary. Straddling all these are a cabinet committee on exports
headed by the prime minister which is looking at policy issues, taking
the total number of committees to four.

Pricing Problem

With the prices of several new models of two-wheelers ruling at
unexpectedly high levels - new 100 cc models often cost more than older
125 cc and even 175 cc machines - the Government has now sat up and
taken notice of an irrational situation.

The problem, lies in the
duty burden borne by the new models, many of which have a high import
content, on which they are charged customs duty. The continued rise of
the yen during the last few months has only compounded the problem.

New car models face a similar problem, but the Government seems inclined to look more considerately at the problems of the two-wheeler industry and a duty reduction may be round the corner.

The Tall Tatas

Which corporate giants will be ahead of the field four years from now? The fist ever answer to this very interesting question comes from the research bureau of business Standard, which concludes after a regression analysis that none other than the two Tata giants - TISCO and TELCO - will continue to head the field in 1989-90, followed well behind by ACC in the unlikely third spot, with Reliance Industries coming no better than fourth.

The analysis takes a number of factors into account before making its forecast, but clearly some of the companies could do better than they are given credit for, given their plans for launching new projects. Equally, some of the other companies seem overrated for their growth potential.

Chipping Trouble

Wipro, the Bangalore-based computer unit, has run into an unexpected
conflict with Sentinel Computer Corporation, the US company from which
it initially acquired its technology in 1980.

Sentinel has said
that it is cancelling its licence arrangements with Wipro and has called on it to stop using software and manufacturing or selling products
based on Sentinel technology because of "various breaches,
contraventions and violations" of Wipro's agreements with Sentinel.

But Wipro counters that it had bought Sentinel's technology outright on a
lump sum payment, that Sentinel's contentions are "absurd" and that the
US company is raising these claims to try and take advantage of Wipro's
success in India because Sentinel has failed in the American market.

The company says that its subsidiary has invested over Rs 4.5 crore in
research and development resulting in "significant indigenous
development of several hardware and software products". It now remains
to be seen which company will sue first.

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